Though CESNUR bills itself as "an international network of associations of scholars," it takes a decidedly unscholarly approach to the Internet. Its own actions as well as those undertaken by its friends are ill-advised at best, and foolish or mean-spirited at worst. For example:

Rather than either deal with or simply ignore criticism, CESNUR tried to censor a major site critical of its activities. While it succeeded in having the site removed by its ISP, mirrors of the site are now located in half a dozen different countries. Such is the nature of the Internet. For the full story, see

Incidentally, part of CESNUR's complaint to the site's ISP was that the site had breached Massimo Introvigne's copyright by publishing a CESNUR press release. Huh? As a patent lawyer can't Mr. Introvigne be expected to know better? Apparently not. See CESNUR and Copyright.

Publishers of other sites carrying information critical of CESNUR also report being contacted with thinly veiled hints or threats of legal action. Such was the case with "Comments from the Friends," as well as "Apologetics Index." For the full story, see

An organization called Una Voce Grida! regularly posts messages promoting CESNUR's website, articles and press releases to usenet groups including alt.support.ex-cult and alt.religion.scientology It should come as no surprise that messages promoting an organization of cult apologists are not appropriate for a newsgroup meant to make ex-cult members aware of resources for support. Too, as CESNUR is headed by a individual who has appeared in court on behalf of the Church of Scientology, it does not take much imagination to figure out that material promoting CESNUR is not exactly welcome in the alt.religion.scientology newsgroup.

UVG! was for a while joined in its support of CESNUR by "Religiosus," who expained that this is a "collective name of people in contact with CESNUR." The exchanges with Marco Martinelli, publisher of a Portugese site critical of Scientology, truly boggle the mind. They are documented here: